Michelem Priory 16/09/06

Weather : Dry, Mild, Misty in the evening.

Duration: 21.00-05.30

Members: 12

Guests: 4

Being one of our favourite "haunts" expectations were extremely high as we arrived en masse with our ever expanding group and guests to Michelem Priory after a brief meet up at the nearby plough inn.  As we arrived in the beautiful surroundings of the Priory, Chris Tucket awaited our arrival as normal, to greet us and give us the low-down on where we could go and what could not be photographed etc.... It was soon time to unload our now extensive range of equipment, and Clint S would take Michelem's first timers on a brief tour of this wonderful establishment.

One stand alone infa red camera was placed in the Tudor room pointing toward the fireplace, we had caught interesting things on film here before. A pair of legs are sometimes seen near the fireplace in this area, or they suddenly appear descending from the ceiling as if walking down some stairs that may have been there long ago. It is thought that this is the ghost of Thomas Sackville. The next Camera was set up just next door, in the music room, the camera this time pointing toward the harpsichord which has been known to be heard playing by itself. Chris informed us upon arrival that he had friends stay over recently and they became very spooked as they asked Chris who was playing the Harpsichord at 3am? Spooky indeed. Also a ghost of a little boy called Edward is known to run into the room and play, even to play a few notes on the harpsichord. At first this room felt very uneasy even with the lights on, a few members even heard voices of whom they thought were other members only to walk into the room to find it empty!

An interesting image captured by Neil, this image was shot down the spiral stairs of the gatehouse, again this looks like the start of a vortex / manifestation.

Our new wireless monitor and infa red camera set up were placed inside the tiny confines of the priest hole of which is hidden behind a secret panel by the main staircase and runs up to the top of the stairs, inside here you can see the fire damage that the priory sustained in 1927, very interesting indeed. Halfway up this priest hole is a reconstructed toy chest a little girl named Rosie used to hide, and place her toys in. Naturally she haunts this area so the camera was monitoring the toy chest and a doll we put in there as a trigger. With a final camera put into the gate house at the priory entrance, and a few cups of teas later it was time to roll!

Liz kicked things off with the opening prayer in the croft of the priory, then it was off to our areas. One team took the gatehouse, another took the music room and the Tudor room, and the final groups took the priors room and the Childs room. Hayley, Franco, Adele and Neal one of our guests took the Gatehouse first. This location seemed to prove interesting indeed. The group were situated on the first floor of the gatehouse, and early on there were reports of footsteps coming from overhead. After Hayley had called out for any spirits to come forward, a feather rapidly appeared at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the next floor, this literally appeared as Hayley asked if anyone was present, not long after this the video recorder linked to the camera, stopped recording and re-wound itself, after only 20 mins and a 4 hour tape on long play, something wasn't right here. Considerable temperature fluctuations were also noted. The other groups didn't have much luck upstairs in the house as some noise in the above flat provided a distraction, and no results.

The feather that appeared after Hayley called out in the gatehouse.

 Downstairs in the music room, were Liz, Shane, Clint D and guest Sean. The room did feel uneasy, and several movements seemed to be heard in the room, almost fidgety noises, that seemed to be on the other side of the room one minute then just feet away from the group the next. This unnerved one or two of the small group, no activity seemed to be coming form the Tudor room next door, sadly no Mr Sackville on this occasion. Also a few members seemed to notice cracks of light and strange anomalies in the music room, at one stage the temperature radically dropped! Toward the end of this vigil, Liz and Guest Sean both at the same time saw a shadow that reflected from the window onto the fireplace. It took the shape of a very large head, or maybe a torso and blatantly walked past the window.

After the first vigil came to an end, the group from the music room went outside to investigate the window area, a flower bed and shrubs are directly outside the window, so why would a human feel the need to come this close? anyway they wouldn't have got far without getting a face full of shrub! They were quite excited and convinced that something walked by the window, and gave them a good scare. Clint D and Liz had a chat with Clint S about the supposed noise coming form above by Clint S's group, however Clint S and his group weren't above the music room and were over the other side. Interesting as Liz, Clint D, Shane and Sean all heard loud footsteps and conversation directly above! The music room had a  After a brief break it was time for vigil 2. Sadly all seemed very quiet around the priory this time, the odd knock and scrape were heard but you have to take into account the causes for such things and be realistic.

The kitchen area where Hayley felt as if she was being pushed at one stage.

Before log it was time for the séance, and no better place for it than the gatehouse on the first floor. As the group was already quite large it was decided that our guests would sit out the séance, but observe from outside the circle. Usual format, 3-4 cameras set up on tripods pointing into the circle to cover all areas of the table. The group felt a tad nervous at the start, but it wasn't long before we relaxed and adapted to the correct frame of mind and felt at one with each others positive energy. Angie took charge of the séance, being a strong sensitive this seemed wise. Angie and Hayley began to feel that someone was around but was holding back, and not coming forward. Some of our guests commented on spotting strange light anomalies that would flash all over the room. Also considerable temperature drop seemed to be noted by all present. About an hour or so in, it was apparent that Hayley seemed quite upset, and began to shake vigorously and was very distraught indeed. This unsettled many of the group, something had arrived, but what or who? Angie seemed to think it was a male named John, could this be John of John who we met last time round? Whoever, it wasn't very pleasant at all, a second attack on Hayley left her very drained and distressed. She claims not to have remembered much of it at all! This would indicate that "John" was trying to take over her, Angie felt this as she tried to help Hayley, and commented on the fact that it felt like she was being electrocuted. He was very strong whoever he was! At this time many members were shivering and teeth were chattering it felt like a December evening in there, the temperature had dropped a lot! A very active place indeed. This seemed to affect on one of our guests Seth, which was enough to make us stop and break the circle, when a spirit interferes with a persons health or wellbeing, especially a guests its time to call a halt to the séance. Seth stood up and seemed very uncomfortable, he commented that he felt as if he was being strangled, and had trouble breathing he also thought he was having a stroke. Seth went out to get some air, decided he'd had enough and wanted to go home. So he left, hopefully this hasn't put him off for good. Another guest Greg commented that he could see a dark figure at the back of the room waving during the séance. A lot of us saw odd shapes around the room, so we weren't ruling this out.

After a very very eventful séance, a large break was needed. The last vigil, didn't give us much, we were pushing on into the early hours, and people were getting tired. A few members looked at the Tudor room downstairs, and the rest of the group gathered in the old music room upstairs. Nothing up here at all, the room just felt very calm. We were pushing critical time at this stage and people needed rest. So we got our heads down, and any remaining folks had little investigations of their own. After a few hours kip, it was time to load up and head off.

Thanks again to Chris Tucket for having us, and trusting us around the Priory once again, we are truly thankful, and very, very grateful. We welcome a return to this establishment very soon hopefully!

Thanks again to all our SPRG members and Guests, and our astral beings who make the nights that bit more special! Until next time.

SPRG 2007